MALVERN snatched a dramatic 24-22 pre-season friendly victory at Weston-super-Mare with a last-minute score.

The Spring Lane side travelled to the former National League outfit with an 18-man squad, but weren’t at full strength because some players were on holiday.

The visitors took the game to the South-West One team and put sustained pressure on the home line.

Their efforts were rewarded when James Hynes barrelled over to open the scoring, with full-back Chris Hooper adding a conversion.

The home side were spurred into action by this early setback and came back hard at Malvern, their backs looking sharp.

The left winger took advantage of some slack marking to dance his way through the Malvern defence to score and set up a conversion to level the scores.

With both teams playing fast, open rugby, Malvern again went into the ascendancy, having the lion’s share of possession and constantly threatening the Weston line.

However, knocks-on and missed passes meant that chances were wasted. Mid-way through the first-half, Malvern won a line-out and stand-off Tom Longley dummied and broke to set up Hooper for a try.

Malvern stretched the lead when a quick move across the back line put Rob Whitehouse in at the corner, but the home side responded just before half-time to fight back after a clever miss-move set up the try.

Straight after the break, Weston’s full-back joined the line to scorch through at speed and put the home side in the lead for the first time.

Malvern tightened things up and some fine defensive work closed Weston down, while excellent performances from Dave Smith, Bruce Thomas and Longley kept Malvern’s attacking options open.

However, despite these efforts, Weston increased their lead after forcing a scrum inside the Malvern 22 and spinning the ball out for a try in the corner.

Just when all looked lost, with the game in the final minute, Malvern took a line-out, the ball was shipped to man-of-the-match Longley, he broke the line and fed the ball to the waiting Richard Fleming, who pounced to score and level the points.

Hooper stepped up and sent a bullet of a conversion between the uprights to win the match for Malvern.

David Robins, Malvern’s director of rugby, was pleased with the way his diminished squad had performed.

He said: “We missed two or three fairly simple scoring chances, so could have been further ahead.

“I was pleased with the way the lads shaped up. Playing a smaller squad than the previous week gave us a better look at some of the newer faces and to assess our options for the make-up of the squad.

“While there were areas in which we need to improve, I was pleased with the overall showing.”

Meanwhile, Robins announced he has signed Tom Beechy from National League Three outfit Lydney.

The speedy winger, who made a guest appearance for Malvern in last year’s end-of-season match against The Guanos, scoring three tries, has also played at Stourbridge.

A Worcestershire man, Beechy brings out-and-out pace to the Malvern squad and Robins is excited about the options he will bring.

He said: “With his experience at a higher level and his speed, I am certain that Tom will bring an added dimension to us.”